Nine Tails
by Rayger
Summary: After an accident in the Fourth Shinobi War, Naruto wakes up in a world not his own. With nothing but his depleted abilities and a weakened Kyūbi backing him, Naruto must stand threats more dangerous than what he imagines in a world he knows nothing of.
1. Prologue

**9 Nine Tails 9**

His head spun.

Like… really spun until he just wanted to vomit. He opened his eyes just before he felt his body regurgitating whatever he had ate. His first thought was that someone had messed with his eyes, because all he was seeing was blue and some fluffy white puffs…

Oh, right. He was seeing the sky.

And just then he took into account his sense of touch. He felt soft but spiky things pinching the back of his body, and the wind breeze caressing his hair and face.

His sense of smell activated immediately, bringing him the scents of fresh grass, wet dirt, dried leaves and old conifers that were signature of a forest.

It just made him want to vomit more.

It was right in that moment when he started to wonder about his situation. And the problem was that he didn't have the slightest clue about it. He didn't know where he was or how he got here, but his first thought on the matter was that he must have been really drunk to get a hangover of such caliber. That kind of unnerved him. What had he done yesterday to end up in a forest and with a hangover that would make any man think twice about ingesting alcohol?

The nausea assaulted him again, but this time his chaotic mind could ignore it more due to the questions that his mind was fretting over.

His head stopped spinning and the urge to regurgitate faded to the point he could actually register where he was: lying, limbs spread randomly, on a bed of grass in a forest clearing. He raised his torso so he could sit, but when he did his head began to spin again. He groaned in protest to the feeling and placed his hands on the top of his head in a desperate attempt to end the sick sensation.

_Burnt corpses were scattered inside a smoking crater. Some of the corpses wore green flack jackets, proving that they were dead shinobi, but others looked like some kind plant-man hybrid, all charred and smoking. Inside of the crater stood a young man six feet tall, with golden blond hair dirtied by dust and smoke; tanned skin streaked with patches of dried blood, and blue azure eyes than shone with determination_

_Despite his wounded appearance, he was smirking with pride. His reason was a snake the size of an Amazonian anaconda, dead at his feet. Impaled at its skull between its lifeless yellow eyes rested a golden, three-pronged kunai._

"_Heh…" the expression of the man -who was named Naruto- seemed one of contempt "Now you got it, Madara, I killed your most important henchman" he stepped atop the snake's head and broke its skull with a crack, smirking at the action "And now I have all my focus on you, and I won't stop until I snap you skull just as I did with Kabuto!" that said, he vanished from sight and reappeared next to a figure shadowed by smoke. With a smirk still on his face, he thrusted his arm with another three-pronged kunai in hand, to attempt to stab the figure. In a second, both Naruto and the shadowed figure disappeared from view._

_To whatever witness remaining on the charred battlefield, the battle couldn't be described with nothing short of epic._

Naruto hadn't noticed he had closed his eyes until he opened them, gasping for air. His head didn't hurt that bad anymore, but it was still annoying. Nevertheless, he could now think clearly. And most importantly, he _remembered _what happened yesterday. It was the pinnacle day of the Fourth Great Ninja War, the day where the Allied Nations would give the final strike to the Akatsuki forces and end the war. And he was the one in charge of battling Uchiha Madara, but then Kabuto (a former apprentice of the dead Legendary Snake Sannin: Orochimaru) interfered in the battle. He couldn't remember anything further about the battle.

Despite his lack of memories on the battle and whatever followed it, he now remembered many other things, and one of those was that he could use Chakra… and he also remembered one of the many uses of the energy, which would help him right now.

He pulled the energy towards his head, willing it to fill his head to end the harsh seasickness that overwhelmed him. What he felt after that was as if all the blood from his body rushed to his head, but a while later when the feeling of blushing madly stopped he didn't have nausea anymore.

With that _really _bothersome problem now gone, he could assess his situation carefully. He was indeed in a foreign territory, but if he speculated on the types of trees, he must be somewhere along the border of Fire Country and–

"_I…did it…" Naruto coughed blood as he stared at the only remaining corpse on the destroyed battlefield. The blond was covered in a shroud of white flames that were apparently fused with his body. The sight didn't last long, however, and suddenly he reverted to his normal appearance, which had gone from bad to worse: his hair was almost gray with ashes and dirt, and he had so many gashes on his body he looked like ha had just returned from a trip to a paper cutter. Naruto hadn't imagined he would take this much damage. He fought twice what was needed because the bastard Madara had a last-resort technique that could revive him if killed, at the cost of one Sharingan eye. It was pure luck that the madman only had one of those eyes. _

_But in the end he had killed the Uchiha orchestrator of the war. Twice. And now he could be in peace and succumb to the sweet unconsciousness that wanted to claim him. He was almost closing his eyes when he felt it._

_No. This wasn't possible. Naruto wasn't supposed to feel the one Chakra signature he was fighting a minute ago, and that he killed TWICE._

_The corpse in front of him suddenly began to exude a copious amount of dark Chakra that engulfed its body. The seemingly dead body stood up stumbling._

"_This isn't over yet, Uzumaki Naruto. It isn't over until I win!" the voice was pitching and malicious, but it was also desperate. The corpse stood up to reveal a man with spiky black hair, grinning widely. One of his eyes was closed, and looked as if the man was unable to open it. The other was purple, with rings surrounding his pupil. _

_The Jinchūriki, in preparation to whatever the man would throw him, activated his white flame shroud that merged with his body, but winced a little when he felt a nasty burning sensation. He had extracted a lot of Kyūbi's chakra for the battle, and any more he took in was harming him from the inside._

"_What you don't know, is that a Rinnegan eye is also valid to perform an Izanagi technique!" as if on cue, the purple ringed eye began to twitch uncontrollably, and finally it closed and didn't blink anymore, closing itself forever. "And now, I'll get rid of the threat you pose for my plan!" not a second later, the black-haired man dashed towards Naruto with both eyes closed, a long sword in hand ready to impale the blond and end his life._

_Naruto, meanwhile, didn't know what to do. He was EXTREMELY exhausted, his body ached in places he didn't know he had, and he couldn't keep the Chakra shroud any longer. On the other hand, Madara was still ready to fight, and while the Uchiha couldn't use any despicable Eye Techniques anymore, his body could still fight…and his couldn't. The Jinchūriki just waited for the strike to arrive._

_It did, and hell exploded into his senses. Naruto grit his teeth in response to the pain so hard he actually cracked one of his teeth, but always trying to hold the scream he wanted to unleash, unwilling to give the madman the satisfaction of his pain. The long sword had impaled him right through his ribcage, past his Chakra shroud, slicing through his flesh and puncturing one of his lungs gravely. But Madara's expression of triumph morphed into one of surprise, because that wasn't where he intended to stab his enemy._

_The reason of the misaimed stab was an earthquake that suddenly shook the land, and that both Naruto and Madara were so tired physically and mentally to register._

"_ROAAR!" a humongous roar was heard everywhere at a radius of one square kilometer, and with the roar appeared a beastly creature at least a hundred meters tall, made entirely of huge chunks of wood. It had nine big eyes on its head, seven of which were closed, one open and one half-open. The creature then started to trash around with no particular direction._

"_No!" Madara's voice sounded shocked "NO! Gedō Mazō, my most proud weapon! You can't be out of control now of all moments!" However deep down Madara knew it was to be expected. He had no Chakra left after the battle to control the wooden beast known as Gedō Mazō._

"_ROOAAARRR!" the creature gave one last roar of pain before the wood that composed it split apart. In a flash, seven beams of different colors shot from the inside of the wooden debris. The seven beams then took form and began to run while making circles around Naruto and Madara._

_The blond ninja caught glimpses of the creatures circling him: a beetle with seven wings…a blue cat with two tails…a four-tailed gorilla…_

_Naruto wasn't someone that prided himself with extensive knowledge of the Tailed Beasts, but he knew one when he saw it, and right now he was sure that all the Bijū that Akatsuki captured had been set free._

_The white wisps of flame that covered his body in this Kyūbi-Chakra mode were abruptly sucked by the circle of mythical Tailed Beasts. The sound of a yell of pain coming from Kyūbi reverberated through his head, which suddenly gave him the feeling of spinning uncontrollably. _

_And then his world became black._

His eyes shot wide open and again he gasped for air as if he had been holding his breath for the last three minutes. Certainly that wasn't the timeframe of the dream/flashback that had hit him unexpectedly twice already. And he had been out for quite some time. If he based himself on the sun, when he first woke up after the battle it was a little later than afternoon, but right now the sun was already setting over the horizon. When his eyes became accustomed to the orange sunlight he just laid calmly on the grass, watching the sunset while thinking about what he just remembered.

The new batch of memories solved some questions that roamed his mind, but brought many more that made him doubt the veracity of the flashbacks. Naruto knew they were true, however, and that was a serious problem if it implied the fact that he was in another…

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a rustle from a bush behind him. Out of reflex, his right hand bolted towards a special pouch located in his cargo pants (he was grateful that his totally insane battle yesterday left him with his pants on, which didn't happen with his shirt). He actually found a kunai inside his pocket, which he drew menacingly.

"Who's there?" he asked threateningly, momentarily forgetting about his thoughts "You better show up or I'll shove this knife through your a–

He never finished his threat because whatever was passing through the shrubs got out, but it wasn't anything he would have ever anticipated. Perplexed, he lowered his armed hand, never stopping being alert.

"_What the…" _he thought astonished.

From inside the shrubs got out a fox like no other he had seen (and he had seen quite the extravagant foxes): Vibrant silver fur covered a body that reached over three feet tall. A small, elegant-looking face contained a pair of orange mirthful eyes. Below the eyes arose a prod snout that ended in a round and black nose. At the top of his head, its fur extended to form silver locks of hair. But perhaps the most fascinating thing about the fox where the nine elongated tails that protruded from its backside, which moved as if flowing in water. At first, the silver fox bared its fangs in self-defense and growled viciously, but then it seemingly recognized Naruto and its posture relaxed. Then, the fox eyed him with a questioning look, and proceeded to move to the ninja's side.

Granted, the vulpine creature's appearance was something intriguing and worthy to behold, but Naruto was even more intrigued by the sense of familiarity he had with this fox that he had never seen before. He smelled a scent that he knew very well, and when the silver fox moved to his side, the blond felt the remnants of an unmistakable Chakra emanating from the creature.

"…Kyūbi?" Naruto said doubtfully, stroking the fox's silver fur.

The exotic fox nodded its head affirmatively, as it looked straight at the blue eyes of the shinobi.

"You don't know the end of it…" a voice said. Naruto jumped in surprise and swung his kunai, having not anticipated a response. What was strange was that his ears hadn't received any sound, but the words resonated clearly inside of his head. Realization hit him, and his surprised gaze turned to the fox, which stared at him lamely.

"…I kinda anticipated that reaction" again the words resonated inside his head.

"What happened to you, Kyūbi?" the blond didn't bother to cover the astonishment he felt. A dozen more questions sprouted inside his mind due to this new event.

"Tsk…" the Nine Tailed Demon Fox sounded utterly annoyed "I lost _so_ much Chakra during our accident that I shrunk to this pitful size and my FUR (my woeful fur) turned a dull gray color!" Kyūbi almost shrieked the last part while its orange eyes darted to every part of its vulpine body. Then the now-small fox began to mourn its loss of color.

Naruto was about to respond to the fox that its fur was actually silver, when he remembered a daunting fact he realized after thinking of his memories.

"Kyūbi, you do realize we are…

"In another world? Yes"

"And what should we do then?"

"…I don't know"

"…"

Both immersed in their thoughts, realizing that it was the end of an adventure…

…and the beginning of a new one.


	2. The Situation Is Like This

**9 Nine Tails 9**

**Disclaimer: I don't want to put a disclaimer because I don't want to say that I do not own Naruto or Pokémon in any ****real, ****legal or official way.**

**…**

**…**

**Oh…**

**Chapter 1: The Situation Is Like This**

* * *

><p>Hundreds of questions and hundreds of doubts, and not enough answers.<p>

It was what Naruto felt at the moment and he knew that it would stay that way for quite the time. But he had to concentrate and try to solve the most important ones before anything else, otherwise not a single question would be solved.

He moved aside all those thoughts to stare at the current sunset setting over the horizon, staring at the artwork that was ethereally painted in the sky. Ah, how he loved orange…

"I don't know what you humans see of special about a sunset. I mean, it's just a _huge _gas globe getting away from our view" Kyūbi muttered, resting on the grass. To any outsider hearing the odd duo, it was nothing more than a yip and a growl, but to the blond it was a well-formulated sentence. How Kyūbi could communicate with him without the need of actually talking was one of the questions he wanted to answer.

"I guess that watching the sunset is one of the things that come with human nature" the shinobi said. His thoughts then moved to another question that could be answered right now. "By the way Kyūbi, why haven't you escaped by now if you are now free of the seal?"

At first, Kyūbi seemed surprised by the inquiry, and answered it with a question of his own: "You think _I_ would abandon my Jinchūriki and jailer while he was in a moment of difficulty?" the silver fox sounded sincere about its feelings, but any sincere intention the fox had said on its question vanished when Naruto looked at said creature straight in the eyes.

"Believe me I tried" this time the Kyūbi _did_ answer sincerely "But even now we are still linked. When I realized I couldn't really _go_ away from you, I just wandered around. Besides, putting up with you is not that bad as it was in the beginning"

It was true for both of them that after Naruto took possession of the mythical Bijū's Chakra in the Moving Island of Kumogakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Clouds), the blond began to try to talk with the Nine Tailed Demon Fox as equals without any kind of friction. They clashed a lot (really _a lot_) on their different points of view and ideals, but the war forced them to cooperate to obtain a goal. Begrudgingly both teamed up, and before they both knew it, the shinobi could actually pull a decent conversation with the fox. Of course they had a long way to go in the friendship department, but as the war extended and they fought together, Naruto and Kyūbi started to value more their connection (not that they would openly admit it. Not even the slightest hint) and talked without problem. Now even if this new problem appeared, they wouldn't break into a fight.

"What do you mean we are still linked?" The blond voiced his intrigue.

"Your puny little mind wouldn't understand it if I explained…" the fox sighed in disillusion. Naruto was about to retort with his own comment until he realized that arguing with Kyūbi wouldn't bring him any benefit.

"Then show me, oh great Demon Fox" the shinobi added the title sarcastically.

"With pleasure" the silver fox responded before inclining its head in a mock reverence. The blue-eyed ninja grunted in response before he let himself be dragged to his mind by his pseudo-prisoner. His body vanished and his sight became enveloped by a blackness he grew used to, before fire suddenly lit in some torches positioned on the walls of a long corridor with golden pipes as ceilings and a red carpet covering the floor. Naruto then materialized at the side of the silver fox, and both began to walk calmly towards the end of the corridor.

What the shinobi found was something that he more or less anticipated: the golden-bar jail that housed the former gigantic fox was ripped apart, but instead of just setting the Bijū free something else had appeared. Seven different colored pillars stood inside the broken jail, each one positioned at the sides of the room. Every pillar had a kanji carved on the middle of their length; the kanji inscribed being a different number according to the pillar's color: the sandy yellow pillar had a 一, or Ichi (one), while the red pillar had a 四, or Yon (four). Even weirder than the pillars and their numerology was the chain that protruded from each one and that extended towards the center of the room. At the very center point, the seven chains were attached to a dog-sized crimson and black collar.

Intrigued by the artifact lying at the center of the room, Naruto picked it up and saw that the collar had carved numerous kanji, symbols and lines. Realizing this was the new seal formula that let Kyūbi reside outside of his body, but kept the fox tied to him, the shinobi did not dare to damage it or modify it in any way, so he left the collar where he picked it. He then went outside the broken jail, where the silver fox had been waiting for him.

"Do you understand now?" the vulpine Tailed Beast asked.

"Yes" the ninja said, although he still had many more questions without answer. The seal formula however, solved some questions like how Kyūbi was out and yet still tied to him, and why the fox could communicate with him telepathically, but it still didn't explain, for example, why the Bijū lost so much Chakra.

"Good, then let's get out of here. This place doesn't exactly brings me memories that I'm fond of" the comment the fox made snapped the blond out of his thoughts.

"Me neither" was all Naruto said before the broken golden jail, the piped ceiling and the red-carpet floor all vanished in darkness, and his sight was again on the forest clearing he woke up. It was now night, and a full moon rested proud in the star-lit sky.

"So what do we do now?" the fox inquired. In this type of white light that came with night, the fox's silver fur looked like it was glowing.

"Well, if we want answers then we have to ask people that know something about the topic, and for that we first need to search for a town or a city… whichever appears first" Naruto added as an afterthought.

"So search it is" Kyūbi replied. The fox then started flexing its legs and tails, and turned its head to snap some neck bones.

"Not actually" the blond stopped the silver fox's jogging dead on its tracks.

"Why not? You do realize you are contradicting what you just said?"

"Yes I do" the shinobi nodded "But first I want to check my abilities to see if something has changed" the blond gave his reasoning "And you also need to check what you can do with your little cute body" Naruto smiled with humor at the remark. He was getting Kyūbi for that 'puny mind' comment.

"…I hate you, but you got a point. This body isn't what I'm used to fight with"

Both had no problem with doing physical work at night, as they had before in the war, so they searched for a clearing or anywhere that suited their training needs. They wandered aimlessly through the forest for about fifteen minutes until they found the clearing they were searching for: it was wide, around two hundred meters by one hundred meters, and it also had a waterfall with a lake below that ended in a river, which was even better for him.

Getting ready, the blond did some jumps and jogged a little. Then Naruto went to one edge of the clearing and began to race through the length of it. The ninja ran from here to there, jumping and twisting and flexing to test his physical state. Kyūbi also stretched and ran across the clearing in an evaluation of the physical limits of its vulpine body.

Naruto's speed and reflexes were unaltered, at least according to himself. That was a relief, since for most of his engagements in battle he relied a good part on his physical prowess. The blond continued to self-evaluate himself until he was satisfied with the tests, then moving to the next vital point of his abilities: Jutsu.

He went to find Kyūbi, who was still running across the camp with as much energy as a dog away from the kennel, and then stopped in front of the Bijū to halt its racing.

"What do you want?" the fox asked, his mood somewhat sour due to the interruption of its race.

"I just came to tell you that besides physical tests, you should also check if you can also do anything Chakra-related, like an attack or something"

"Fine" the fox grunted "But let me finish my 'I'm-free-of-my-longtime-prison' moment"

"Sure" the shinobi said, not really caring about the vulpine Bijū's antics. Eighteen years on a prison with almost no mobility must be a boring time, even for a Tailed Beast. That didn't include the periods when Kyūbi was sealed into Uzumaki Mito (who had a very large life by the way), and the period when the fox was sealed into his mother, Uzumaki Kushina… that was a long time indeed.

So he proceeded to move to the Jutsu segment of his evaluation. Before that, however, he needed to verify his Chakra hadn't suffered any alterations in this whole mess. So he stopped running, got down into a lotus position and focused on his interior. Naruto didn't close his eyes, however, because he didn't need meditation right now. When he felt something lightly warm that flowed all through his body, he concentrated it on one spot in his stomach, and when the shinobi felt a pulse, unleashed it all outside of his body. Naruto's body was then covered in a hue of a remarkably blue color, but after a second it faded away with the same speed it had appeared. This whole process was for him to accurately measure his Chakra reserves.

Compared to his pre-accident reserves, this quantity was minuscule: well over a fifth of what his total amount of Chakra used to be. Nevertheless, compared with the normal standards, his actual reserves were similar to those of an experienced Jōnin. With his reserves dwarfed to this amount, his control over Chakra would have also slipped a notch or two, but nothing disastrous. It meant that he'd have to practice _again _his lower Chakra techniques, which for some people wasn't that bad, but for him was a real pain in the ass.

Anyway, to the blond those Jutsu weren't that important. He could practice them later, but now one more thing had popped that Naruto needed to be certain he could perform before moving to Ninja Techniques: Chakra control, which was less Chakra-intensive than the techniques he intended to use.

The blond searched for a clearing like this one because he could train here in many ways, and Chakra control was one of them. The shinobi raced towards a particularly tall tree and sent Chakra at the soles of his feet.

Seemingly not caring that he was about to crash with the tree, Naruto did a low jump and proceeded to run along the tree's thirty-meter length defying the gravity laws known to the man. When the blond arrived to the top, he jumped to another tree and landed on a strong branch, then leaped to another and to another. The ninja jumped from branch to branch around the clearing, enjoying the wind hitting lightly his face.

Tree walking had worked, and that was enough for him right now: it was one of the simplest yet most useful Chakra control techniques existing, and while there were a plenty of more advanced techniques, it was all he needed to be sure the Jutsu Naruto considered vital would function correctly…wait. No. The Jinchūriki still had two more control exercises to do, but while one of these was another Chakra control exercise (even if more complex than tree walking), the other involved Elemental Manipulation instead.

With that in mind, Naruto dropped himself from the branch he was perched in and landed aside the waterfall's lake, sending Chakra to his feet and applying it with care. The blond then walked on its surface, again defying the physic laws someone that obviously didn't know ninja had invented. He stood against the waterfall, and extended his arms with the palms of his hands facing the falling water. The blond searched on his interior for a fresh, breeze-like sensation. When he felt it, Naruto drew it to his hands and pushed it outside in one go. The waterfall split horizontally in two parts. Satisfied, he stopped the flow of Wind Chakra to his hands, and jumped outside of the lake he was standing in, landing in a crouch. His exercises done, the shinobi could now move to test his vital Jutsu.

Being enough warmed up with all he did, he went straight to the point and moved two fingers of each hand to form a cross hand-seal. He then pulsed his Chakra and in a puff of smoke appeared two copies of himself. His first important Jutsu worked, but now that he had considerably less Chakra than he used to, the blond couldn't afford the luxury of making hundreds of Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) that didn't pity his loss of reserves and were still pretty high Chakra consuming. It was time to check his second important Jutsu.

Naruto made a shell of Chakra, filled it with said energy and made it spin, all in a subconscious level. The characteristically blue Rasengan (Spiral Sphere) materialized on his hand, and the still-Jinchūriki then sprinted towards a tree, slamming the blue sphere on it and causing instantaneous destruction to the tree's bark. The tree then cracked into two parts right where the Rasengan had impacted, proving the dangerousness of the attack.

While still in the war, the Rasengan was the only technique the blue-eyed ninja had the time to train and master to a higher degree, leaving as a result the fact that he now didn't need a clone to complete the Spiral Sphere. Most of his other important Jutsu were based on this specific technique, and thus his control over them also increased, but not in the magnitude the Rasengan had. For his third technique, however, he didn't want to slip up and have a destructive backlash as consequence, so instead of trying to perform a Fūton: Rasengan by himself, he used the help of one of the two Shadow Clones he had created, the other one watching from the sidelines, trying to pinpoint any mistake in the Chakra form/Elemental Manipulation technique and warn the users of it before it was too late.

The clone didn't need to, fortunately, because both Naruto and the helping clone knew what they were doing. The original blond shinobi was forming a Rasengan –the base of the technique– while the supporting clone added Wind Chakra to the blue sphere. The Rasengan then developed four small white protrusions that resembled shark fins, and began making a soft screeching noise. Naruto, not wanting to hold the technique for more than what was needed to, slammed the sphere into another tree, immediately splintering the tree and making bark and chunks of wood soar into the air.

The tree didn't even break like the other had with his normal Rasengan: all its unfortunate twelve meters of height were reduced to splinters proving that this technique was even more dangerous than the others.

Getting into fighting rhythm, the blond and his clone began preparing their fourth most important Jutsu, and by far the most destructive. This time the second clone he had created also jumped into action to help create the technique Naruto had come to name Fūton: Rasenshuriken. Naruto himself made again a Rasengan while the other two Kage Bunshin pumped Wind Chakra in large quantities that the technique needed to be completed. This particular technique was the improved and augmented version of the Fūton: Rasengan, and had earned the place of the most dangerous between his Jutsu.

It was then that the Jinchūriki actually realized the amount of Chakra this was taking and how fast the Rasenshuriken was eating through his reserves. The math was not good. Suddenly, the shinobi let the base Rasengan fade, but his clones, having not realized that neither a blue Spiral Sphere was lacking, or the amount of Chakra the technique was consuming, kept pumping Wind Chakra to a now unstable structure of energy, and Naruto decided to dispel the Shadow Clones before they caused an extreme explosion.

When the failed Rasenshuriken was not fed with Chakra anymore, the shuriken-like body collapsed on itself due to the amount of energy it had. Instead of an enormous explosion of cutting air, the result of the aborted S-Rank Jutsu was a miniature tornado surging from the point where the technique was, throwing away anything it encountered. Still, it didn't last long and disappeared in a few seconds.

As Naruto stared at the place where the tornado dissipated, he thought about the cause of it. The shinobi's reserves had been downed to a third of his actual amount (Jōnin-level, he had to remind himself), and the Rasenshuriken wasn't even half completed. This meant that with the Chakra reserves the blond had been reduced to, he couldn't complete a Fūton: Rasenshuriken unless he wanted to end in the brink of death due to Chakra exhaustion, and now the Jinchūriki couldn't get support from his Bijū, since Kyūbi had also lost an abundant quantity of Chakra… even more than him, Naruto speculated.

The shinobi abruptly sensed something at his left, and lashed a kick at where he thought his stalker was. To his surprise, his kick was met with three silver furred tails that endured the contact. To the blonde's further surprise another two silver tails latched at his waist and threw him towards the lake. Instead of splashing in cold water, however, Naruto twisted in the air and ended standing on top of the liquid surface. He moved his eyes to land on his attacker, which was Kyūbi, its orange eyes staring at his own blue.

"What did you figure out you can do, Kyūbi?" If the fox wanted to spar with him it meant that it had found an attack competitive enough. The silver fox twisted its snout into what could be interpreted as a smirk, and just limited itself to say one word.

"This" the silver fox's vulpine cheeks expanded before letting free a huge amount of fire that came straight towards the blond shinobi. Naruto's eyes widened before clashing his hands together and moving his fingers frenetically to form hand-seals, yet the flames almost reached his body and a second later they engulfed the ninja entirely.

For a brief moment, Kyūbi became afraid that the attack had harmed his friend/jailer, but reminded itself that Naruto was no rookie, thus couldn't be caught in such a simple –even if surprising– attack. The fox's thoughts were proven correct when the flames dissipated a bit for the Bijū to see that in the spot the shinobi was seconds ago there was instead a still burning log that sunk into the lake, exuding smoke with a hiss because of the contact with water.

A twig snapped at Kyūbi's left, and the fox's highly sensitive ears pinpointed the sound to be five meters away. The silver fox had enough reaction time to lift two of its tails to cover its left side before a fist impacted them. The fist turned out to be Naruto's, who then lashed out a kick that Kyūbi met with another two tails. Another Naruto suddenly appeared at the fox's right side, trying to land a hit at the downed Bijū's unguarded side, which proved unsuccessful when it was met with another two tails.

'Damn those things are annoying' the shinobi thought referring to Kyūbi's useful nine flexible limbs that allowed the Bijū to multitask. By now, the fox's six battle-active tails were put together, raised protectively in an improvised but effective furry shield. But if you saw them in the angle the blond was standing, combined with the fact that its silver fur glowed a pale white in the moonlight…

"Heh" Naruto said amused "In that shield stance you took you look just like an onion…" he said to spite his pseudo-prisoner, but couldn't help to smirk widely at the implication.

"WHAT!" the downed Bijū barked angrily, loosening its tails in reaction, said limbs then twitching in response to the emotions flowing through he fox's body "Oh I'm _so _getting you bastard for that comment…" The moment of anger, however, had left an opening that the blond shinobi didn't waste. While the fox was focused on the original Naruto, who had done the remark, his clone had sneaked on Kyūbi's blind spot and tried to land a decisive blow.

The Bijū, although angered, hadn't dropped its guard at any time during the course of the battle, and as such wasn't fooled by the distraction its pseudo-jailer had made. The fox suddenly turned its body a full hundred and eighty degrees before expelling a huge torrent of fire to the surprised clone, who took copious amounts of damage and dispelled in an instant. The Kage Bunshin gone, the Bijū then dashed towards the original Naruto, its silver-furred tails posed as scorpion tails in a gesture that promised pain.

The shinobi didn't miss a beat and also raced towards the fox. When they got into fighting range, Kyūbi unleashed another set of flames that the blond sidestepped enough to avoid. Not satisfied with the results, the downed Bijū fired more bursts of fire straight to the blonde's face, this time wider so they could not be sidestepped. In response, Naruto threw himself to the ground just in time, as the flames passed a few feet above his head and he felt the heat waves.

Those weren't his ideal flames to be scorched with.

The shinobi then sprang back to his feet and ran towards the fox with more speed than before, intent on not letting Kyūbi fire more flame bursts. That wasn't in the Bijū's plans, however, so the fox prepared to unleash another blaze of fire, but Naruto arrived first attempting a punch at the fox's head, which in turn forced Kyūbi to abort the still-not-ready attack and jump away from the hit. The silver fox retaliated as it got into range of attack, using one of its always-useful tails to hit the blond in the temple. The attack landed, leaving a dazed Naruto in consequence. The Bijū tried to do a follow-up strike again in the temple, but this time the shinobi caught it with a hand, and pulled the limb, which made Kyūbi lose balance and in consequence be dragged straight towards its Jinchūriki, who prepared to punch the fox right at the head with his other hand. The silver fox tried to block it with its tails, but the limbs were met with air resistance they weren't strong enough to move in. Closing its vulpine eyes in expectance of the hit to land, Kyūbi was surprised when it didn't feel any pain. The Bijū opened its eyes to stare at Naruto's grinning face; one of its pseudo-jailer's hands positioned in a chop, touching lightly the fur covering its trachea and with his other arm in a grip around its neck.

"The spar's over" the blond told the fox. His pants were dirty with mud from when he had to duck in the ground, and had some small bruises that the shinobi ignored completely. Kyūbi just looked surprised and nodded slowly while the ninja released his grip on the fox's neck.

"Freakin' hell, Kyūbi, you were like a flamethrower trying to burn me to a crisp" Naruto said smiling amusedly.

"That was the idea" the fox replied with the most comfortable tone it was able to give. It made the blonde's smile drop a bit. The Bijū grinned lightly at the action.

Without ant forewarn, they broke into laughter and rested in the forestall floor of the clearing. Although they had just sparred, neither of them was really tired.

"So…do we now go to search for people?" Naruto asked, even if he was the one to suggest the idea.

"I guess"

Dawn was already beginning, the sun showing itself timidly over the east, its first rays hitting the blonde's face and the fox's fur tenderly. The new day renewed his vigor.

"Well then" the blond stood up in a flash, his motivation refreshed and ready to do about anything with new energy to burn. He stretched his limbs and cracked a few bones in anticipation. Kyūbi also stood up and prepared to run when the fox felt something getting inside and outside its body at the same time. It was an odd sensation.

"Wait" the downed Bijū said in a moment of sudden inspiration, trying to figure out what its vulpine instincts were trying to do.

Naruto was doing some warm-up jumps when his pseudo-prisoner told him to stop. The ninja did just that and was greeted with the sight of Kyūbi's silver fur glowing with even more intensity than in the spar, despite the sunlight becoming stronger and stronger. The blond watched in fascination as the fox's unusual glowing started to throw tiny sparkles while the Bijū remained as still as a rock, its also glowing orange eyes full of concentration.

"Here it comes… Here it comes…" the fox said more to itself that to the shinobi.

Naruto also noticed that where pseudo-prisoner was standing, the morning's early sunrays were hitting the fox directly without interference.

"Here it comes… Here it comes…" the silver fox muttered again, this time with more enthusiasm "Here it comes… Here it comes the SolarBeam!" Kyūbi said the words instinctively, because there was no way the fox could tell what would come out of the strange but invigorating sensation.

The shinobi was startled when the vulpine Bijū unleashed a growl of exertion accompanied by a blast of energy resembling intense sunlight, which the blond sensed to be similar but not quite the same as Chakra. Naruto whistled in amazement when the yellow beam was shot at a speed most normal ninja would not ever be able to match, and tore apart trees and anything on its way. The blond realized after a few seconds that this was the energy that Kyūbi also used for the flamethrower attack.

The beam eventually faded, but not without first obliterating at least half a dozen trees.

"Whew!" the fox breathed in relief "It was hard to keep all that inspiration and focus, but damn if that thing wasn't kickass!"

The shinobi wholeheartedly agreed with Kyūbi's opinion, but that wasn't where his mind was right now. Naruto's interest was piqued by the interesting creatures that were showing up in curiosity because of the ruckus the Bijū had caused. Strange, he hadn't noticed them before, but it was probably since he was very distracted with training, Hell, even Kyūbi had managed to sneak up on Naruto, and the fox wasn't exactly a master of discretion. The blond wasn't either, but comparing them both was like an explosive-tagged kunai with a kunai without explosive tag: both were weapons and were thrown at the enemy, but with the difference that one would make a _boom _and then everyone would know that the kunai's thrower was around. After all, every time he used Kyūbi's help in an Infiltration & Sabotage mission back in the Fourth Great Ninja War always ended with him in trouble, Naruto remembered somewhat bitterly…

But these creatures were extravagant and interesting to say the least. The shinobi had seen many animals and even the powerful Bijū, but not anything like these ones: blue beetles almost four feet tall, with one long protruding horn that added one foot more to the total height, and with clawed arms and legs ready for a battle. Swarms of red-and-black ladybugs that were three feet in size, with round eyes and two black antennae, flocks of brown, small spiky-haired birds with red wings and some weird green spiders with red fangs and a small horn on their heads. Hell, Naruto even saw some things that looked like pinecones but were actually _alive_ and _moved_, with eyes and all.

"Hey, Kyūbi, look at those things" the blond said with wonder in his voice.

"…and you should have seen when the beam kept its trajectory, thrashing everything on its way…" apparently the fox was too absorted with the attack it had unleashed a few seconds ago to notice anything.

The blond heard some high-pitched howling that this time caught Kyūbi's attention. The fox stopped appraising its sudden inspiration to join its pseudo-jailer's contemplation of the creatures. A group of small purple monkeys popped out of the forest and circled one of the destroyed trees. Even more unique than their purple color was their yellow faces, round eyes and big grins they all seemed able to contain inside their oval-shaped faces, and most of all, their tails that had at the end a round yellow hand.

Unfortunately, the duo's peaceful contemplation ended when one of the weird monkeys noticed the fox and the man staring at them. The ape then moved one of its round arms (it didn't have any visible fingers!) to point at them.

"Ooh! Ooh!" the yellow-faced monkey exclaimed, gesturing at the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo. The other monkeys conglomerated around one of the destructed trees, stopped whispering between themselves to look at whatever one of their fellow simians was signaling. All moved their heads and eyes in unison, and when they saw Naruto and Kyūbi, they did the exact same thing as the first monkey, and pointed their round arms at the duo.

"What in Kami's name are those things!" the Bijū asked on disbelief. Even the mighty Tailed Beast had not seen a creature like these ones.

"Forget that" the Jinchūriki responded abruptly "What the hell do they want with us?"

"…I don't know, but I don't have the intention to find out. Their tails and their faces are disturbing me" Kyūbi commented.

"Ooh! Ooh!" the apes said at the exact same time. Then they shouted something that the blond and the silver fox registered as 'A-pam', and unexpectedly, the monkey group raced towards them, waving their tails in excitement.

The duo's eyes widened comically, and seeing the purple apes quickly approaching made them want to go away. In an attempt to slow down the purple mob, the fox grabbed one of the green pinecone creatures that happened to be passing by, and threw it with the help of two tails serving as catapults. The pinecone soared into the air and landed straight at a monkey's head. After the hit the pinecone creature rolled away, and the purple-colored ape stumbled and fell, before its lithe body was stomped by the rest of the running monkeys. In their exciting persecution of the shinobi and the fox, the apes didn't notice anything, thus leaving the dazed monkey behind, who at this point was now unconscious and with spinning swirls instead of eyes.

That was only one, though. They till had a dozen more monkeys chasing them, all shouting their 'A-pam' thingy and grinning at the duo.

Said pair just ran away from the apes like they had just seen the devil's face. Spiders…ladybugs…pinecones…birds… things blurred by as they sped up in an effort to loose the monkeys. Both raced through the forest until they overran the purple apes so much their shouts couldn't be heard. When the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo was sure they wouldn't be pursued anymore, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"…I think we just went through a really odd experience" the fox muttered.

"You think? Those monkeys freaked me out!" Naruto exclaimed "And why did _you_ ran away from the monkeys?"

The Bijū huffed insulted, refusing to look at the shinobi "I already told you, those things disturbed me"

They had stopped in a dirt road that crossed the forest, and they followed it in hopes of finding a human settlement. After their persecution the duo needed some time to rest from the shock, so they continued walking calmly in silence until the forest thinned a little, and Naruto could see the outlines of a town.

"Hey, look Kyūbi!" the blond said with excitement.

"What?" the fox asked with intrigue. The Bijū raised its head to look straight ahead, trying to locate the source of its pseudo-jailer's hopeful humor. The silver fox managed to distinguish the outlines of some houses.

"Is that a town?"

"Hell yeah!" the shinobi responded, "A town means that we'll get food!" Naruto hadn't eaten anything since one day before his battle with Uchiha Madara, and that was three days ago. He was hungry as hell. Perhaps he could get some ramen…

"But food is not free. You'll have to pay and we don't have anything worth a cent" Kyūbi reminded him of reality as they ran towards the town. The sooner they arrived to civilization the better.

"…I could sell you" the Jinchūriki muttered dismissively loud enough for the fox to hear.

The silver fox just gave its pseudo-jailer a death glare, but didn't press the matter.

The forst thinned gradually as they got closer to the town. When they arrived at the town's outskirts Naruto saw a sign that he stopped running to read.

_Azalea Town_

_Home of the Slowpoke Well_

"_Living Happily with Pokémon"_

"What the hell is Slowpoke!"

"And for the matter, what the hell is Pokémon?" Kyūbi completed the phrase that the shinobi began.

The blond shrugged in response, not knowing what to answer but taking the initiative "We'll find out I we ask in the town" he finally responded. If they didn't found answers of any kind then at least they could search for food and money.

"Yeah" the silver fox agreed. The Bijū didn't have any kind of allegiance to anything or anyone in the Elemental Countries barring Naruto, but the vulpine Tailed Beast did want to know what happened to its former state of powerfulness, and how to return to that state. If there was a chance of doing so and at the same time stay outside of the seal (it was impossible to get out of the seal except for dying), then the fox would take it without hesitation.

So they entered the town, in hopes of finding answers.

What they would find was something not seen everyday.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**Wow. I didn't expect this kind of response for my first attempt at a story. 775 Hits in a week and two days! I'll try to update sooner rather than later, so don't worry about that, because right now (the mere beginning of the story) I have the next bunch of events planned out.**

**As you have noticed, the plot starts in Johto. This is because most of the stuff that gave shape to this story's plot is in Johto, and thus it's easier to write about this region than others like Kanto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh (even Unova. DON'T expect me to write about Unova). So I ask you to wait, because the story is just beginning to have sense.**

**Sincerely**

_**My penname is on the left corner of the top.**_


	3. What Is This All About?

**9 Nine Tails 9**

Chapter 2: What Is This All About?

After they read the sign, Naruto and Kyūbi continued to walk towards the town. They came across a wide wooden bridge that helped pass an also wide river. They crossed without incident and found themselves in the town that the sign foretold.

Azalea Town was a relatively big place, with wide dirt roads containing trees here and there. Concrete buildings of all sizes and forms were located at the sides of the roads. At the back of the town there was a mountain range that extended as far as the eye could see.

While at first the town seemed normal enough, as they explored more they found out it wasn't so. Their first clue were the signs scattered around the town, all of which portrayed a pink creature that looked like a cross between a hippopotamus and a salamander, however at the time it didn't matter really much. Their second clue was a purple monkey running along one of the dirt roads, holding something on its tail-hand. While running, it shouted an 'A-pam' and another two monkeys arrived to the scene. Then they proceeded to run until they turned a corner into another street and got out of the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo's sight.

However, their third clue was the one that made them realize something was wrong with the town: After wandering for a while around the town, the pair didn't found a single soul to which they could ask a question. They continued to walk around the town, but to their frustration not a single person was on the streets.

"What the hell do the people in here do that they don't even get out of their houses?" Naruto asked annoyed. Their search proved fruitless till the moment "This is a damn ghost town! We better go to another town, but if this is how all the places in this world are, I don't know what to do…"

"We should check the town's outskirts, just in case someone lives there" Kyūbi supplied helpfully, but also annoyed at the lack of moving things on the town. That said, they moved towards the town's edges, trying without much hope to find someone that could answer their questions, which is why the duo was surprised to hear some ruckus coming from a dirt path that leaded to a forest at the town's west side. Intrigued, the duo walked down the forest path to find a huge clearing with hundreds and hundreds of square meters of crops.

The crops resembled pine trees, but with the distinction of the trunks being much thinner, the leaves somewhat round, and with the mayor oddity of giving weird fruits that looked just like a bunch of small pink bananas about eight centimeters in length.

"So even this world's fruits are weird. What a bizarre place…" Kyūbi trailed lamely, before focusing on the cause of the ruckus that they had heard before. Naruto's eyes widened and the fox huffed in annoyance due to the cause of the disturbance: the purple monkeys they had seen before on two occasions. This time there were at least two dozen of the yellow-faced apes, all of them trying to pluck away the pink bananas from the crops. The problem was, that instead of a swift robbery, the monkeys found themselves having to avoid attacks from several of the insects the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo saw at the forest, trying to protect the crops. Beetles and ladybugs were trying to swat away the sneaky apes, which sometimes managed to pluck away a fruit, and then proceeded to run away with the fruit clasped tightly in their tail-hand.

The conflict reached the spectator duo when one of the monkeys managed to get away with a plentiful bunch of pink bananas, and ran towards their direction with the intention to escape. A blue butterfly, with red eyes and wings that made the creature almost five feet tall, gave chase to the ape, shooting a string of what appeared to be a type of cobweb material. The monkey jumped and evaded the shot, which hit the ground and covered it with cobwebs in a second. The butterfly kept on the offensive, and shot another string at the ape while it was still in the air, which the monkey evaded by unexpectedly ducking low. The string, however, continued its path on the air straight towards Kyūbi, and he fox rapidly moved one of its tails to take the blow. To the Bijū's and Naruto's astonishment, the string shot quickly wrapped itself around the furry limb, and the tail dropped inert to the ground, due to Kyūbi being unable to move it.

The blue butterfly was getting desperate to capture the purple monkey, so it fired several string shots that missed the elusive ape and thus continued their trajectory towards the Jinchūriki-Bijū pair. Naruto did the hand-seals for the Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Technique), and in a poof of smoke replaced himself with an innocent log that was suddenly covered in cobwebs.

"Thou shall thank thy log for thy task" the blond muttered solemnly about ten meters away from the spot where the log was attacked, safe from any kind of retaliation.

Kyūbi, however, couldn't do a Substitution Technique and found itself in a precarious position, so the fox threw a small flamethrower blast that dissolved the string shot in mere seconds. The flames didn't fade away and continued traveling in a straight line, finally colliding with some crops that began to burn rapidly. Alarmed, the butterfly halted the pursue of the troublemaker monkey to try to extinguish the fire, flapping its wings to shut down the flames.

While the crops began burning, the yellow-faced monkey realized that even though it evaded the flame blast unscathed, the pink banana the ape had been holding in its tail-hand had caught fire and right now it was just hot melted pink goo. Seeing that there was no more meaning with staying in the crop field, the monkey decided to dash towards the forest, slipped between two bushes and disappeared onto the forest.

Back at the pink banana crops field, the blue insect saw that its efforts to shut the fire down weren't working, so it fired a string shot that wrapped itself around the burning plants. In a matter of seconds, the flames were covered by a white flexible material and the problem seemingly ended there, when suddenly the cobwebbed crops began to exude smoke and cracks appeared on the cobweb's surface. In an instant, fire erupted from the cobwebs and the crops began to burn with twice the intensity from before.

The blue butterfly-like creature let a screech of anguish before desperately renewing again its efforts to shut down the fire using the wind produced by its wings. However it wasn't enough and the fire spread rapidly to adjacent crops and to the crops next to those ones, as if gunpowder had been laid all over the place. All the creatures that were within the range of the fire got away from the flames, abandoning their invasion or defense of the crops. The heat of the fire grew more noticeable as grew the desperation of the butterfly, which began to screech uncontrollably and flew from one point to another trying without results to extinguish the fire.

"Butterfree! Calm down!" a voice shouted from within the forest. A man suddenly got out from some shrubs next to the ones where the monkey disappeared. The man was around 5'6" in height, and had purple hair cut into a bowl shape, with bangs of hair that made the cut larger at the back and shorter at the front. He also had opaque green eyes behind a pair of round glasses, and was wearing a boy-scout outfit with a green vest on top that reminded Naruto of the vests Jōnin and Chūnin wore.

"Butterfree!" the purple-haired man shouted at the blue butterfly, but the insect-like creature didn't seem to listen "BUTTERFREE! CALM DOWN!" the man shouted so loud he coughed afterwards, but it served its purpose and the butterfly stopped screeching over the crops enough to pay attention to the purple-haired man.

"Calm down! Don't forget that you have Rain Dance!" after those words were said, the butterfly appeared to realize something, and the insect creature stopped the frenetic flap of its wings to suddenly materialize a blue orb that looked strikingly similar to the Rasengan, but the blond user of the authentic Spiral Sphere sensed the similar orb to lack any kind of attack force inside itself.

The shinobi and the fox had just watched the events develop after Kyūbi had accidentally set fire to some crops, the duo being too interested with what the blue butterfly creature was doing. The Jinchūriki-Bijū pair watched as the butterfly launched the azure sphere high into the air, and when the blue butterfly let it free, the orb kept propelling itself until it disappeared behind the clouds. The blue sphere continued soaring out of sight up in the sky, when suddenly it imploded and let free a huge wave of deep blue energy that was absorbed by the surrounding clouds, which darkened steadily to the point they became pure black storm clouds. The roars of thunders were heard down in the crops, where everyone saw lightning flash a few times before suddenly it began to rain.

The water droplets first began as a drizzle, but as time passed by it grew into a heavy downpour that extinguished rapidly and without mercy all the fire that had spread over the crops. The blue butterfly collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. It sure used a lot of energy to be able to summon rain this strong.

"…You do realize we caused all of this fire in the first place, right?" Kyūbi commented quietly to its pseudo-jailer, who was at the fox's side.

"We? You mean _you_!" Naruto answered in an equally low voice, refusing to accept the guilt of the problem. Hey, it wasn't his fault that the Bijū couldn't do a Kawarimi no Jutsu.

"…I blame the non-possession of opposable thumbs in a fox's paw" the vulpine Bijū replied. Hey, it wasn't its fault that foxes lacked an opposable thumb. What could the Bijū do on the matter?

"Well I keep blaming you, and I say that we better flee from scene before the guy with glasses sues us for burning their weird banana crops!" the blond suggested troubled by the situation.

The fox reached the same conclusion that its Jinchūriki, and so the duo did small sidesteps, taking advantage of obliviousness of their presence to flee away, and continued sidestepping enough to end up at the edges of the forest clearing.

However, while the purple-haired man moved towards the blue butterfly that was laying on the ground in the center of the crops, more people got out of hiding in the forest. Some of them got outside parts of the forest just ahead from where the duo was, all of them facing the crops and trying to evaluate the damage the fire caused, thereby giving the back to the Jinchūriki-Bijū pair. No one had noticed them, but their presence meant the duo had to halt their plans to escape. If they had people witnessing their escape then it would worsen their situation, because if that happened the shinobi and the fox would be marked as criminals trying to get away, and the pair just couldn't go around knocking everyone seeing them.

"…We should knock out the people in front of us and then escape" well, apparently Kyūbi thought they could.

"No!" Naruto disagreed "That's a stupid thing to do"

"And having 'common sense' is stupid! I don't care if I knock them out" was what the fox refrained from saying. Now wasn't the time to start arguing "And what should we do then?" was what the silver fox said instead.

"They haven't noticed us yet. We can still sneak away…" as if on cue, one of the men in front of the pair turned around to spit on the ground (that was gross, even for Naruto and Kyūbi), and when the man did he also saw the blond and the fox discussing between themselves. At first the man was surprised, but then composed enough to ask a "What are ya doin' here!" to the blond ninja.

Said blond found himself cornered by the unexpected turn of events and the inquiry. The shinobi twitched nervously when the rest of the men (Kyūbi counted five) turned around to see why the first man asked the question. Fortunately, the attention they were paying to him faltered when the group of men took notice of the silver fox standing at the blonde's side. They stared incredulous at the downed Bijū, and their distraction gave Naruto time to devise an excuse, albeit an improvised one. When the men shrugged off their distraction enough, they focused again on the shinobi.

"What are ya doin' here, boy?" one of the men asked, this one wearing a military style bandana on his forehead "Do ya have anythin' to do with this?"

"No! No, I was just wandering around here when suddenly the fire began" the blond quickly denied responsibility of the problem.

"Are ya sure?" a man with war paint asked with suspicion clear on his voice.

"Really, we were just wandering around" the ninja managed to make his voice sound truthful, even though inside he was very angsty. He always really hated lying…

"Well, in that case then we gotta bring ya with us just in case ya witnessed somethin' important" a third man expressed, this one wearing a bug net, throwing the Jinchūriki off.

"What?" Naruto seemed surprised. Why would they want to take him if he had already given them an excuse? The bug net holder, oblivious to his indignation, took a hold of his arm and carried him towards the crops, Kyūbi following cautiously behind.

Meanwhile, the purple-haired man had reached the five-feet blue butterfly lying on the floor, and proceeded to take a small round object from a pouch on his vest, not visible from the point the duo was walking. The man pressed the tiny round object with his thumb (opposable thumb, Kyūbi noticed), and to Naruto's and Kyūbi's surprise, the object suddenly expanded until the Jinchūriki-Bijū duo could see what it was clearly: it was a ball, at first small, but that now barely fit on his hand, which was divided in hemispheres by a horizontal black line, the top half a red color and the lower half white.

"Rest, Butterfree" the man murmured, pointing the bi-colored ball at the butterfly-like creature "You have earned it"

The Jinchūriki-Bijū pair jumped in an unexpected reaction when a red, translucent beam of energy shot from the ball and touched the insect, and the duo watched in astounded silence as, instead of harming the creature, the blue butterfly suddenly dissolved in red energy, which was re-absorbed by the red-and-white ball. The man wearing boy-scout outfit then pocketed the ball back in his vest, and watched intrigued as a man using a bug net approached him, also bringing along a young blond man that he had never seen before. Then he caught sight of the silver fox beside the blond, and the purple-haired man's eyes widened, before blinking a couple times behind his glasses and scratching his nose, perplexed.

"Sir! This boy here says that he was wanderin' 'round when the crops caught fire, and the fox beside followed him!"

"Hn…does he says so?" the opaque green-eyed man was perplexed, but his voice sounded calm enough, which for Naruto's view was not bad, considering they were suspicious witnesses that happened to be around at the time of the fire. The vested man gave them a scrutinizing glance before Naruto's stomach grumbled and the shinobi shared a quick stare with the fox that told him what he wanted to know.

"Umm…not to take advantage of you guys, but could somebody take us somewhere to eat? I haven't eat in a few days and I'm starving" the blond rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and the purple-haired man nodded.

"I'll take him somewhere to eat. We'll talk about he operation later" that said, he walked away from the crops and gestured Naruto to follow him.

"Kyūbi, let's go" the blond then told the fox, who also began to follow the purple-haired man. The duo followed the man outside of the clearing and into the town, walking in uncomfortable silence.

"Sorry about that" the man suddenly commented apologetically "We've been having some trouble recently, and things around the crops have been getting tense. My name is Bugsir by the way, and you could say that I'm the leader of the town"

"My name's Naruto" the shinobi introduced himself in response with a tension-breaker smile, hoping to lighten the mood, then gestured towards the form of the silver fox following them "And this is Kyūbi. We want to ask you many questions, but something tells me that we should answer yours first"

Bugsir nodded appreciatively "Thanks, and you're right. You need to answer my questions first before anything else, so I'll begin: How did you end up witnessing the fire?"

Naruto twitched nervously "Well…"

( Five Minutes Later)

Naruto had told the purple-haired man how they entered the town searching for food and money, but finding no one on the streets then they began wandering in the town's outskirts and how they ended up (or how Kyūbi ended up, as he specified clearly much to the fox's annoyance) launching a blast of fire in self-defense, which accidentally set the crops on fire. Of course, the Jinchūriki omitted things like who he or Kyūbi were, what abilities they had, or anything on a personal level. Bugsir seemed nice, but Naruto still didn't trust him enough. While the blond told the duo's story, the group had crossed had crossed the town and now they were walking in a dirt path that lead towards a forest at the other side of the town.

"Where are we heading?" Naruto asked, finally deciding to question their direction.

"To my house. Even if I'm the town's leader I find it quite problematic to stay in the town. Besides, my house is even closer to the Slowpoke Well" was the answer of the purple-haired man, who then did a pause before deciding to express his thoughts about the duo's story "I should give you both a punishment for burning the crops" Naruto was about to complain when the man muttered "But I'm not a iron-fist ruler, you didn't do it intentionally and the damage is nothing serious, so I think I'll pass" the purple-haired man scratched his nose.

That calmed Naruto down, and he let himself be lead by Bugsir through the dirt path until they arrived at an extensive, one-story yellow brick house located just aside the forest. Bugsir guided them through the front garden, which was littered with tall trees and vivd flowers, and where a kid Naruto swore was Bugsir's replica was playing with a one-foot green worm with two small red horns.

"Hey! That kid looks just like you" the blond said to the purple-haired man, who stopped on his tracks to take a look at where Naruto was looking at.

"Hn? Ah, yes. He is my son, Bugsy" Bugsir told amiably "He just turned thirteen years old about a month ago" He then whistled and yelled to the boy "Bugsy! Come here!" The boy halted his game with the small green creature to hear his father, and then ran towards the group "What do you want, dad?" he asked, grumbling for being taken out of a game.

"Just present yourself and then you can go back to play with the Caterpie"

"Fine" the boy grunted. The Bugsir-replica then turned towards Naruto "Hi, my name is Bugsy. I'm thirteen, and I go to the Azalea School. You know my dad, I know my mom and you'll probably too, so I think that's enough. Oh, wait, my dream is to be an awesome Gym Leader like my dad is!" the boy had said all in a flat tone except for the last part, when his tone contained determination and hope.

"Good, Bugsy. You can go to play now" as soon as Bugsir said that, Bugsy dashed towards the green one-feet worm, and continued to play with the creature.

"He sure is a smooth kid" was what Naruto said about the boy. The purple-haired man nodded, and continued to walk across the garden. Kyūbi just snorted, but only the blond knew it was because of his comment. They arrived at the porch, and the group passed a wooden door that lead to the house's interior.

"So…now that we answered your questions, can you answer ours?" The purple-haired man nodded, and that was all the permission Naruto needed. However, there were many questions Naruto wanted to ask and he didn't know where to start, so he decided to begin with a simple inquiry. "What kind of problem is the town having?" the shinobi asked feigning half-interest, even if he was actually curious about the matter.

Bugsir seemed to have expected the question, but even then the man coughed uncomfortably before responding "Well…the town has been recently plagued by a horde of Aipom that are always trying to steal our Nanab Berry crops" Well, those were new words in Naruto's and even Kyūbi's vocabulary…and they were as confusing as hell. What was this all about?

"Nanab Berry? Are those the pink bananas of the crops?"

"Yes. Azalea Town is an important producer of Nanab Berries on the Johto Region, considering that Berries are not usually grown and harvested" Bugsir sat on a couch at the corner of a guest receiver, and gestured Naruto to take a seat as well. The blond did as asked, and sat in another couch directly facing the man, Kyūbi following him and resting at the floor beside its Jinchūriki's feet. The shinobi didn't say anything to the Bijū on the matter, since he didn't know how the fox would normally behave outside the seal.

"Johto Region…" Kyūbi interfered after setting himself comfortable on the floor "I guess it's where we are now. It's sure an odd and different place"

The Jinchūriki agreed with the fox's opinion, but having read the altered seal formula and knowing Bugsir couldn't understand anything the silver fox tried to say, he voiced the question Kyūbi also wanted to ask, both curious of their new predicament.

"Johto Region?" Naruto pretended bewilderment "Where's that?"

This time, Bugsir was caught off guard by the question "You mean you don't know where you are?" surprise was clearly evident on his voice, as was in his face.

"Yeah…" the blond smiled sheepishly "Kyūbi and me kinda had an accident…I blacked out, and since then we don't know where we are"

"Uh…" Bugsir scratched his nose in exasperation " I suppose I could give you an idea of what is the Johto Region, since you…well, you'll be useless and get lost in an instant if I don't"

"Johto is a region located at the oriental part of a large landmass. Its extension is basically all the right half of the it, parting from the perilous ranges of Mount Silver on the east to the vast seas surrounding Cianwood City on the far west. From the mysterious waters of Lake Rage on the north, passing the magnificent Bell Tower and its downed sister Brass Tower, to the tranquility of the south's Azalea Town and the locally-praised Slowpoke Well" Bugsir had been gradually raising the tone of his voice until it sounded like he was giving a poem, but then he paused and blinked repeatedly as if he had snapped out of a trance.

"Oh…sorry" the purple-haired man murmured embarrassed "It's just that I have always wanted to be a poet, and I've traveled quite a bit…" Bugsir looked away for a second, and then scratched his nose.

"No, no, it's good. You can continue explaining that way" the blond was actually paying attention, and it helped that he liked the way Bugsir was explaining. Notwithstanding his focus, Naruto still couldn't piece things together because he didn't know the first thing about all these places. He needed more information and this was all right.

"So, is this town…Azalea Town, in the south?" Naruto showed that he was paying attention when he asked the location of town he was in.

"Yes. It is actually the southernmost human establishment in Johto. If you decided to head towards the south by foot, you would find open sea traveling just one day"

"And what is the Slowpoke Well? You made it sound like it's an important monument, and I read a sign at the town's entrance where the name appeared"

"Well, the Slowpoke Well _is _an important monument in Johto, but here in Azalea we care for it even more since it is part of our tradition. It is in there where Slowpokes reunite, and those Pokémon are specially appreciated here…"

"Anyway" Bugsir continued before letting Naruto talk, who was about to ask another doubt "Johto is mainly a rural region with towns like Azalea, although it also has large modern cities like Goldenrod City. Johto is also the fourth most diverse region in Pokémon biodiversity…"

"What is Pokémon?" The blond asked with clear curiosity and impatience from being denied to ask the question before.

Bugsir did a double take at the question and almost fell of the couch in disbelief.

'Is this person even from this world?' the purple-haired man looked at the blond like he was an alien "You don't know what a Pokémon is? The fox resting at your feet is one!" When Kyūbi heard the statement Bugsir made, the vulpine Bijū raised its head from its paws to shot the town leader a questioning look.

"What does he mean by that?" Kyūbi asked mostly to itself, knowing that Bugsir wouldn't understand anything the fox wanted to query. The Bijū wanted to restore its power to its former state, and knowing the state the Bijū was downed to would help along the way.

"What is Pokémon?" Naruto repeated the question, this time more insistently. Bugsir let out a deep sigh of desperation and sank lower into his couch.

"Well…um…I suppose I could explain to you briefly what Pokémon is. It is a large and complex concept, and I think that if I tried to explain it all to you then you would get a headache" The purple-haired man scratched his nose "So I will try to explain this the most summarized way possible, for me at least: A Pokémon is a living, sentient being that can move, eat, rest, communicate, feel and think to a high degree. The appearance of a Pokémon varies tremendously between species, since they can go from resembling a plant to be quite similar to a magnet or a mythological beast. There are hundreds and hundreds of different Pokémon species, so many that in fact we haven't discovered them all" Bugsir stopped for a moment to gulp some saliva and refresh his throat "All Pokémon have special characteristics and properties that make them akin to a certain nature type, like Fire, Water, Grass, Bug, etc. This affiliation makes them compatible with certain or moves, while incompatible with others. These moves can be used for many different purposes, be it combat or domestic ones. A Pokémon can learn different moves they are compatible with, but they have a limit to the number they can use at the same time, which is usually four, or otherwise Pokémon confuse their moves and can't use them effectively in any type of situation" Bugsir made a pause before pushing his glasses back at the bridge of his nose and then continuing.

"Another important facet of Pokémon are the Pokémon Trainers, which dedicate themselves to train the combat capacities of the Pokémon he or she has captured. Trainers use their Pokémon to battle using strategy and taking advantage of moves, types, and other facets of Pokémon. Among the Trainers there are those who are called Gym Leaders. All of the Gym Leaders have a strong set of Pokémon, which is why other Trainers aim to beat them to prove their Pokémon's prowess, and if they defeat a Gym Leader then they earn a badge. There are only eight Gym Leaders in Johto, of which I am one, and once you defeat them all you can fight the Elite Four, which as their name says, are four of the toughest top-class Trainers in Johto that you face in order to proclaim yourself as Champion"

Naruto was paying attention to all the explanation, and the more he learned the more he could understand about how these creatures -that were apparently a very basic thing- worked. Granted, the blond didn't absorb all of the information, but he felt like he could figure out what he didn't know with time, as this whole Trainer thing looked kind of similar to the Chūnin Exams of his youth. He kept paying attention right until he processed the specific bit of information when Bugsir said he was a Gym Leader (which sounded like quite the title).

"Wait!, You mean you're a Gym Leader?" So that's why he actually understood a good amount of the explanation. He had to, if a supposed Gym Leader was explaining it.

"Yes. I am in charge of the Azalea Town Gym, and as such I have trained strong Bug-Type Pokémon, which is the type I specialize in. Being a Gym Leader, I have experience with many things concerning Pokémon, but this Aipom problem has proven to be quite the difficult thing to handle, so I have been running an operation with the crop farmers to stop the Aipom from stealing anything, but so far it has been fruitless…" Bugsir stopped talking about his problem when he suddenly thought of something that might help his odd guest with his doubts "Wait here for a moment" the purple-haired man stood up from his couch and then paced towards a hall. The man opened a door at one side of the hall and entered, disappearing from the duo's view.

"So…what do you think, Kyūbi?" the blond took advantage of Bugsir's momentary absence to talk freely with the fox without someone thinking that he had lost his mind.

"I believe this world is a really odd, odd place, but I think I understood enough of the explanation about these weird creatures to manage myself here. On the other hand, I don't know if your pitiful mind could process all that information…"

Naruto scoffed.

"My mind understood enough thank you" he responded to Kyūbi's jab "But still, I don't think that even with all this information we've learned enough about this world, or the creatures for the matter"

"Then we will figure it out"

"That's what I thought"

Bugsir suddenly returned to the guest receiver bringing a thick book with him "Here" the purple-haired placed the book on the blonde's lap "This will help you. Pokémon and anything concerning them is quite the complex theme, so I am letting you borrow this book" Naruto took a hold of the book, which was entirely of black leather. He read the front cover.

_For Pokémon Trainers_

_Types, Move Sets, and Abilities_

"I don't know what you dedicate yourself to" Bugsir continued "But even if this book is for Pokémon Trainers, it will help you understand more about Pokémon" Just in that moment, Kyūbi caught traces of a peculiar aroma coming from somewhere at their left, and the Bijū did some sniffs to be sure about what was it was smelling.

"Is that food?" Naruto asked after doing some evidence sniffs himself. It certainly smelled good.

"Ah, yes. I told my wife to cook food for some guests. Also, don't fear about the quantity. I thought that you would be hungry, so I told her to cook a good amount. The kitchen is right here…" Bugsir directed them towards a door to the left, where the scent grew stronger.

The Jinchūriki-Bijū duo found themselves in an ample kitchen, where a black-haired woman about 5' 4", with brown eyes and fair skin was boiling a pot on a stove.

"She is my wife" Bugsir told the duo, before gesturing Naruto to take a seat in a dinette, and showing Kyūbi a space on the floor where there was a bowl. Bugsir's wife then grabbed the pot with her mitten-covered hands and served the blond some steaming soup in a bowl. She also filled Kyūbi's bowl with soup, before going back to the stove to cook more.

At the sight of hot, steaming food, both the shinobi and the fox threw themselves onto their bowls and devouring everything inside within a matter of seconds. Soon, the duo asked for more, and the black-haired woman refilled their bowls just for the pair to throw themselves at the bowls again. Naruto's lack of modals was justified -at least to himself- with the hunger he was carrying after absence of food in three days straight. He didn't know why Kyūbi was wolfing its food down though. But perhaps it was because it had been even longer since the Bijū had the possibility of eating actual food.

Bugsir also requested one bowl of soup, which he ate calmly in contrast with the starving guests. After the Gym Leader finished his bowl (the duo was on their fourth and counting), he stood up from the seat he had taken at the table.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your meal, but at the moment I must meet with the Nanab Berry farmers to check on the state of our operation" Bugsir bid goodbye to his wife and waved his hand in the duo's direction before getting out of the kitchen. Naruto watched the man until he disappeared towards the crops at the other side of the town, when he suddenly felt a hunch coming. The shinobi stared at his empty bowl of soup while considering in his mind the consequences following his hunch would imply, and debating whether to follow it of not.

The black haired woman that was cooking more soup was startled when the blond unexpectedly jumped out of his seat, dashing towards the kitchen's exit and vanishing a second later.

"Naruto!" Kyūbi shouted angrily "You stupid moron! Where in kami's name are you going? You could at least tell me before doing something stupid! I'm not your fucking babysitter, dammit!"

While the Bijū was complaining and cursing him, the blond had already gotten outside the house, where he saw Bugsir in the garden, a few meters away from the dirt path that would lead him to the crops.

"Bugsir!" the shinobi yelled to the man, who stopped on his tracks when he heard the blond calling him.

"What do you need?" the purple haired man asked a little rushed. He was getting late for his meeting with the farmers…

"Two days" Naruto said with more calmness, now that he knew Bugsir had heard him.

"What?"

"I wanna help you with your problem, but first give me two days before I do anything. Just two days…"

The Gym Leader thought about it for a moment before answering.

"Fine with me" the purple-haired man commented. More help didn't sound bad at all… "Take your time, and when you feel ready, I will tell you what we know about the Aipom and the situation we are in"

"Thanks" Naruto said before grinning "And don't worry, two days will be all it'll take for Kyūbi and me to be ready to do just about anything"

Satisfied with the answer, Bugsir nodded before resuming his walk towards the Nanab Berry crops. Naruto just watched him leave before muttering something.

"It'll be more than enough…"


End file.
